Hillary Clinton joined Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, Diane von Furstenberg, Barbara Walters, Angelina Jolie and Tom Hanks as featured speakers at the annual conference highlighting global women's issues.
Meryl Streep helped kick off the star-studded summit Thursday night, as she switched in and out of an Irish accent during a tribute to her friend, activist Inez McCormack, who passed away earlier this year. Streep portrayed McCormack in a performance at the 2010 conference.
The audience went crazy when Streep dropped the F-bomb while retelling a story of McCormack's.
ABC's Barbara Walters received a warm welcome as she took the stage to lead a panel discussion about "why we need to care about the women in Syria."
Walters, who recently took six weeks away from The View as she recovered from chickenpox and a concussion, was escorted arm-in-arm slowly off of the stage at the conclusion of the panel.
Angelina Jolie closed out the first night of the summit by pledging $200,000 to a new initiative from 15-year-old Pakastani student activist Malala Youstafzai.
"In a brutal attempt to silence her voice, it grew louder," Jolie said of the young girl who was shot at point blank range by the Taliban on a school bus in Pakistan last October because of her outspoken support for girls' education.
Through a video, Malala announced the first grant for the Malala Fund, which supports the rights to education for girls in Pakistan. The grant will support the education of 40 girls aged 5-12.
"Let us turn the education of 40 girls into 40 million girls," Malala said in the video.
"When in the hospital [Malala's] father saw a poll of the most influential people," Jolie said. "Malala was number six. President Obama was number seven."
The sold-out conference, hosted by Tina Brown, editor of Newsweek and The Daily Beast, is held at the Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater.
Friday's schedule includes speeches from Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Eva Longoria, Susan Rice, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks and many more.
Last year's summit drew 2,500 women from around the globe.
News Source: www.usatoday.com
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